According to nearly every review - Halo 3 arrived as expected, lived up to the hype and delivered.

Not to rain on this parade, though, but I still think the fact that, as an XP user, I can't play Halo 2 is a rotten, low-down, self-serving decision by Microsoft which represents at least a kick in the knees to loyal PC gamers - if not an outright groin punch.

So, on this eve of success with a shooter which apparently could probably easily and gracefully run on even the CheapBox++ ... I say bite me Microsoft.

2 comments:

The only time I was ever excited by Halo was when Bungie was originally developing Halo (1) for the PC. I really rooted for Bungie, being a developer underdog that did make quality games (Marathon!).

However, Microsoft bought them out, thus delaying the production cycle and slating it for a Xbox release only. Somehow, perhaps out of pity or in the way that a bully gives a toy back after he's broken it, they came out with the PC version many months later. Yay. By that time it was a low-quality-graphics shooter (with less-inspiring vehicles than had UT2004) that had a bearable storyline and irritatingly repetitive map design.

I'm about as excited for Halo 3 as I was for Halo 2, which could be easily described as "Oh, Halo 2 was released? Huh, I didn't notice."

Compare the player character of Master Chief versus any of the characters from UT3, and I rest my case.

I was really originally excited for Halo when it was a massive action-based RTS for the Mac. Then Bungie sold out to Microsoft and it turned into a flagship title and an FPS. And I got really annoyed that what looked like a creative title was just an MS marketing tool.

I did, however, play and very much enjoy the PC port. Yeah, the graphics were out of date by then, the maps got redudant and I couldn't really get into the multiplay much. But it was a decent "light tactical" shooter and there aren't a lot of those. They've got some great mechanics, a great backstory and a not so bad narrative.

Yeah, I played way more hours of UT2004 than Halo, but I'd be willing to give Halo it's due and would definately try Halo 2 and 3 out.

Except Microsoft doesn't want me to, unless I buy Vista. Which sucks. For one thing, I can't move to Vista because it would break some of the stuff I'm developing. So instead of shipping a quality OS - they just resort to cheap tricks.